Rediscover the Sabbath on 'National Day of Unplugging'

Do you ever give your Blackberry a day off? Fast from Facebook? Take a time-out from Twitter?

If not, you probably need to read this.

The nonprofit group Reboot is launching a new project called the Sabbath Manifesto designed to get overworked and overstressed young techies to rediscover the novel Biblical concept of a day of rest.

It kicks off March 20 with a "National Day of Unplugging" -- not using computers, cell phones, or any technology from sundown on Friday, March 19, to sundown on Saturday, March 20.

"The last few years, I've had a growing feeling that my connection to technology was getting to be more like an addiction," says Dan Rollman, 36, of Brooklyn, N.Y., who came up with the Manifesto idea. He says he's never been a particularly religious person, but the idea of the Sabbath always appealed to him.

So he took the idea to Reboot, a growing network of more than 300 young Jewish technology entrepreneurs, writers and others who want to "reboot" the culture, rituals, and traditions they've inherited and make them more meaningful in their own lives.

A video on the Sabbath Manifesto website features Rollman and other Rebooters, including Jill Soloway, executive producer of Showtime's United States of Tara, and Greg Clayman, executive vice president of digital distribution and business development at MTV Networks, talking about what it was like when they first unplugged.

As the saying goes: "You don't have to be Jewish" to appreciate the concept.

"While this project has come out of a Jewish think tank, it was important to us that we create a set of rules that are not for Jewish people only," says Rollman. "Many religions have this tradition of the Sabbath."

The principles, he says, are "meant to be added to your life in a way that is positive for you. There is no wrong or right, and no penalty for not observing them properly."

Rollman, the co-founder and president of Universal Record Database, which tracks self-reported "world records," says that like most New Yorkers, "my life goes a mile a minute ... I have come to cherish my Friday nights and Saturdays," which he spends exploring and enjoying New York -- museums, parks, theaters, going to brunch.

Do you keep a weekly "Sabbath" day? How do you honor the spirit of a day of rest?

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About Cathy Lynn Grossman

Cathy Lynn Grossman is too fidgety to meditate. But talking about visions and values, faith and ethics lights her up. Join in at Faith & Reason. More about Cathy.